It is always fun to see my friends in their homes with their families. In highschool, I saw this all the time, but I hardly ever get to see this anymore. As soon as Jill and I walked out of the station, Jill's dad (who I've never met before) threw his arms all the way around me and my monstrous backpack and welcomes me to his home. This was very different from when I first met Jill, which was in the awkward setting of our first floor meeting and then again in the quiet of a classroom. Now, fifteen months later, I am staying with her family in Germany for two days. How things change...
The next day, I was able to go into Kandern, which is the city that houses Jill's high school. It's not a German high school, though, it's a missionary school. Kids who go to this school are here because their parents are serving a group of people who are elsewhere. Jill's dad is the principal of the school which means he is the one who makes it possible for all these kids to have a place to consider "home." At least for a little while.
I think being a missionary kid would be incredibly difficult. To follow your parents from place to place without much say and never settle down would be so hard for me. Yet these kids do it and then they settle at Black Forest Academy until it is time to move on. I am impressed by these students and also by their teachers. The teachers are wanderers, too, but that doesn't stop them from serving their students.
I asked Jill if it was hard for her to move to Germany from Arizona. She said it wasn't, it was just the next place. Talking to her about that made me wonder what my life would look like now if we had moved to England when I was eleven. All the things that happened to me which seemed significant started to happen in Jr. High. These never would have happened if we had moved. I guess that's the beauty of it; the point was to stay and I don't need to know what would have happened if we had left. It's always part of a greater plan, stay or go.
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